For Latinos, 1965 Voting Rights Act Impact Came A Decade Later
*For Latinos, 1975 was just as significant as 1965. The VRA extension of that year ended language discrimination at the polls. VL
By Suzanne Gamboa, NBC News
Gloria Molina has achieved several firsts in her lifetime – the first Latina elected to the California State Legislature, the first Latina elected to the Los Angeles City Council and the first Latina elected to the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors.
[pullquote][tweet_dis]… for the Latino community, the 40th anniversary of the 1975 extension of the [Voting Rights] act is just as important.[/tweet_dis][/pullquote]Her victories came in the 80s and 90s, a decade or more after the 1965 Voting Rights Act became law and following legal challenges based on the law, including one that went all the way to the Supreme Court.
“[tweet_dis]The Voting Rights Act is only as good as somebody who is willing to challenge the laws and make a case[/tweet_dis],” Molina, no longer in office, told NBC News.
Thursday marks the 50th anniversary of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, a gem of the civil rights movement, but now arguably weaker than when it was signed by President Lyndon Johnson.
But for Latinos – often a footnote in the nation’s recall of voting rights discrimination – what is more significant is that Thursday also is the anniversary of the 1975 extension of the Voting Rights Act, also signed on Aug. 6.
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[Photo courtesy of Sanders.Senate.gov]
